Before I get into today's post I thought I'd add a picture and video that I couldn't upload the other day. The picture is Frankie hitting with one of the local kids. By the end of the tournament the parents of this kid (and his two brothers) really liked us and told us if we come back next year we have to stay with them. They also gave us some sweet Veules-Les-Roses Tennis Club T-shirts. And the video is of the trophy presentation. The guy who walks up to accept the trophy is the guy I lost to.
Frank balling.
Trophy presentation.
Onto today. We're in the little town of Courseulles Sur-Mer at a nice little campground. Yesterday we spent most of the day in Caen visiting 'The Memorial', which is the biggest French museum dedicated to World War II. We thought it was going to be focused on D-Day itself, but it wasn't at all, and instead was a 3 hour walking tour of the entire story of World War II.
Entrance to 'The Memorial'
They had this quote from Eisenhower in front of the entrance.
It was pretty cool experience, albeit slightly frustrating for two reasons. First, all the text is initially written in French, they have translations into English and German, but the translations are not good. It's as if someone just copy-pasted the text into 'Google Translate' and took whatever it spit out. You would think at a nice museum they could hire someone to do solid translations.
The beginning of the U.S.'s involvement in WWII.
Several stars indicating one was Jewish.
An SS officer's uniform.
A U.S. infantrymen's uniform.
The second frustrating part, wasn't all that frustrating I suppose, just a bit interesting. When you learn about World War II in the United States you get the idea that America stepped in and saved the day. But either that's not entirely true, or at least the French choose not to portray it that way. Instead the French proudly talk about the victories of the French army, which were essentially none, and sort of gloss over the United State's involvement. There were tons of plaques talking about the proud actions of a single Frenchman who derailed a train with 10 Germans on it, or another who snipped a few communication wires throughout the country. As well as several plaques depicting President Truman as a bad human for dropping nuclear weapons because the United States was supposedly in peace talks with Japan. Admittedly, there was some mention of thanks to the United States, Britain, and Canada, but it was less than one would expect, but it was still not what we expected.
U.S. Employment Service poster.
German condom. He-he.
Hitler's Dead! And the war is pretty much over.
Funny thing I forgot to mention is that right before we went to the museum we had just driven about two hours and were quite hungry. We parked at the museum and Frankie suggested we go inside because there was probably a cafeteria where we could eat (there was), but I thought we should walk around the town and find a local establishment. Being it Monday in France, everything was closed except for this little bar and a supermarket. Again Frankie suggested the supermarket, but I was feeling the bar. I really should've listened to Frank on either of his two suggestions. The bar was without a doubt the seediest place we've been in our time here and was probably the first time in France I didn't feel entirely safe. There was horse racing being played on the T.V. and various men, and some suspicious looking women, smoking, drinking, and betting on the horses. Despite ordering some version of hamburgers, our food took about 45 minutes to arrive and one of Frankie's patty's was very, very firm. I'm thankful that we weren't killed inside the establishment by all the French construction workers who were giving us the stink eye, or killed by the food once we left. But we live to fight another day.
The town we camped in is also the location of Juno Beach, a beach where a troop of Canadians landed on D-Day. The fighting wasn't all that vicious and the Canadians had taken the town of Courseulles Sur-Mer in a matter of hours, but it's still pretty cool to be here. As opposed to Caen museum, the resident's of Courseulles Sur-Mer are quite fond of the Canadian's efforts as there are Canadian flags everywhere.
A monument at Juno Beach, right near where we camped.
And another honoring the Royal Winnipeg Rifles.
Later today we're headed about 45 minutes west to the town Colleville Sur-Mer where the famous Omaha Beach is located. The American cemetery is here and we've been told it's pretty amazing. After we are going to go for a long drive south to La Tranche Sur-Mer where are next tournament is located. We should play tomorrow or the next day, but they haven't called us to give us our match times quite yet. Aur revoir!
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